Welcome back to ‘Folk & Mirrors’! This week we want to shine some light on our charity work. This is has been on our mind a lot recently as we are in the process of becoming a non-profit social enterprise - more on this in a future instalment!
We are very passionate about fundraising and using our skills to give back to the community. Over the past 12 months we have organised four fundraising gigs and raised over £1000 for various charities, as well as performing at other charity events.
December 2022 - Le Pub offered free venue hire so we used the opportunity to raise money for Feed Newport, a local charity that provides support to homeless people. We chose a Christmas theme, learned some festive songs and even dressed up in Christmas pyjamas with elf slippers. It felt great to do something positive for the local area and to bring people together for a good cause. We managed to raise £250 which we were really pleased with.
April 2023 - We wanted to raise money for Mind Cymru, a charity that Rhiannon has used herself. We
chose a venue in Cardiff which has since closed down. There was no charge for using the venue, but we had to pay to use an in-house sound technician rather than using our own (who would not have charged us as it was a charity event). This was a bit of a shame as it took away from our fundraising potential. we were supported by local musicians Katie Lou and Alex Isembard, who both performed fantastic sets. Overall we managed to raise £175.
In July 2023 we played at ‘Poochfest’, a fundraising event organised by Friends Of Newport Dog's Home. It was a fantastic evening and a great opportunity to meet other local musicians whilst raising money for charity.
August 2023 - We organised a fundraiser for SANDS, a charity who provide support to families dealing with stillbirth and neo-natal loss. The event was held at Le Pub and the staff were very helpful as always. We were supported by Joseph Everett and Antony Kean - two friends of ours who happen to be fantastic singers and guitarists. We managed to raise more money with the ‘Act Happy Jukebox’ - you could donate extra money to vote for which songs we would play during our set. This event tied in with the release of our first single, ‘Drunk’ and it was a very special night for us. We managed to raise £400 and were so grateful for the support we received from everyone that came to the event.
On Jax's birthday in September 2023 we performed at the Community Volunteers Wales event ‘Fun In The Park’ in Risca. It was a very rainy day but lots of fun and it was great to meet people who shared our passion for giving back to the local community.
November 2023 - Our last fundraising event of the year was for No Comply Skate Park, a non-profit organisation based
in Newport City Centre. It is an important space where children and young people can learn to skate in a friendly and safe environment, and families can spend time together. Le Pub provided great support for event with poster design and promotion and we had a great turn out. There were performances from Adam Morgan, Greg Ryan and Ryan Keyse - three excellent singer-songwriters with very distinct styles. It was the first time we had played a full set of original songs at a fundraising event and we were thrilled with the crowd engagement. It was a really fun evening and we raised a total of £260.
We will continue to organise fundraising events and will hopefully be able to do this on a larger scale over the next 12 months. If you would like to make a suggestion for which charity we should fundraise for then use the contact form on our website or drop us a message on Instagram. We are also keen to get involved in any charity events in the local area (we don't charge for this) so please get in touch if you are planning an event that needs some live music!